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Excellent Link For Anyone Interested In Exoplanets


bornagainathiest

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Wow. 3368 confirmed. The number goes up fast. When I think about the size of the known universe I have to think that there is a good chance of life elsewhere. The numbers are just too large to rule it out.

 

An aisde: Was in New Zealand two years ago and got inside the MOA telescope at the Mt. St. John observatory. Way cool. MOA means microlensing observations in astrophysics. At that time the scope had spotted about a dozen exoplanets. An interesting note is that during observations no one is allowed inside the dome in part because a person's body temperature would affect the scope. (Also, there really isn't room inside the dome when the scope slews around.) Had a good laugh when I went into the operators' room next to the dome and saw all the clutter — looked just like a college dorm room after an explosion. Finally, I was told that they can re-silver the mirror right there on the mountain. Here's a link to some pix of that scope: http://www.phys.canterbury.ac.nz/moa/moa_telescope.html

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Wow. 3368 confirmed. The number goes up fast. When I think about the size of the known universe I have to think that there is a good chance of life elsewhere. The numbers are just too large to rule it out.

 

An aisde: Was in New Zealand two years ago and got inside the MOA telescope at the Mt. St. John observatory. Way cool. MOA means microlensing observations in astrophysics. At that time the scope had spotted about a dozen exoplanets. An interesting note is that during observations no one is allowed inside the dome in part because a person's body temperature would affect the scope. (Also, there really isn't room inside the dome when the scope slews around.) Had a good laugh when I went into the operators' room next to the dome and saw all the clutter — looked just like a college dorm room after an explosion. Finally, I was told that they can re-silver the mirror right there on the mountain. Here's a link to some pix of that scope: http://www.phys.canterbury.ac.nz/moa/moa_telescope.html

 

The numbers will go up even faster, quite soon, older.

 

T.E.S.S. will be launched next year and is expected to find 3,000 more.

https://tess.gsfc.nasa.gov/

https://tess.gsfc.nasa.gov/documents/tess_factsheet_06-05-15.pdf

http://www.orbitalatk.com/space-systems/science-national-security-satellites/science-environment-satellites/docs/TESS.pdf

 

And Gaia has been taking data since 2014 and when it delivers it's final data release (2022) it's expected to have found between 10,000 and 50,000 more exoplanets.

http://sci.esa.int/gaia/

http://sci.esa.int/gaia/28890-objectives/

 

But this 2013 article suggests that there are more habitable planets in the Milky Way galaxy than there are people on Earth!

 

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/11/05/possibility-of-88-billion-habitable-planets-in-the-milky-way-galaxy

 

Thanks,

 

BAA.

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So, maybe we are not alone. I wonder what's going to happen if they discover God resides on one of those planets?

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Amazing stuff. And I didn't think that Kepler would be anywhere near as big of a success as it has been (Really? You're going to watch a small-ish patch of sky and you can only find planets whose orbits are inclined in such a way that we can see the planets transit their stars? How many do you seriously expect to find that way?).

 

This is why I love science: it's so much more interesting when you're proven wrong!

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[snip]

 

This is why I love science: it's so much more interesting when you're proven wrong!

 

And every question that is answered leads to another question. I sometimes erroneously think that the early scientists in any field had an easier time finding things since they were at the basic level of discovery, but then I realize the tools and base knowledge they had and what they did was just as amazing as what is happening today. To think that Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the earth some 250 or so years BC using only shadows and basic trigonometry just blows me away. And when I think that Galileo's telescope was not even close in quality to the binoculars I have now yet he came up with so many accurate conclusions, it shows me that these guys were true geniuses. And of course, the folks who are making discoveries today are no less geniuses. To be able to launch a satellite that can arrive at an almost infinitesimally small target ten years later and 2.9 billion miles away is more than my feeble brain can handle.

 

How much more could we know if religions weren't impeding our efforts?

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So, maybe we are not alone. I wonder what's going to happen if they discover God resides on one of those planets?

I'll tell you what's gonna happen...

 

They'll name that one, 'Heaven'. ;)

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So, maybe we are not alone. I wonder what's going to happen if they discover God resides on one of those planets?

I'll tell you what's gonna happen...

 

They'll name that one, 'Heaven'. wink.png

 

 

Joe Haldeman's already been there and done that (sort of), Fwee.

One of the six colony planets from his Forever War novel is called, Heaven.  Not because of anything religious or supernatural.  Nope.  Just because that world is so beautiful and unspoiled, unlike the overpopulated and polluted Earth in this story.  Any colonist born there receives the right to call themselves an 'Angel'.  

 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forever_War

 

http://carrdickson.blogspot.com/2015/06/reprogrammed-to-be-killing-machine.html

 

channing-tatum-forever-war-movie.jpgforever-war-tatum.jpgfwar2.jpg

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1307468/?ref_=nv_sr_1

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